1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid container that has an erroneous insertion prevention mechanism for preventing an erroneous insertion into a container mounting portion of a liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
In a color ink jet printer (liquid ejecting apparatus) that performs color printing, ink cartridges (liquid containers) as exclusive-use containers, in which ink of different colors of B (Black), C (Cyan), M (magenta), and Y (yellow) are filled, respectively, are used. Ink (liquid) filled in the individual ink cartridges are supplied to a print head that is driven in accordance with print data transmitted from a host computer and then is ejected at a target position on a printed matter, such as a paper or the like, through nozzle of the respective colors provided in the print head.
In recent years, in order to realize high-definition full color printing, color ink that is mounted on a printer includes intermediate colors of DY (dark yellow) or LC (light cyan), in addition to C (cyan), M (magenta), and Y (yellow). Then, the number of ink cartridges that are mounted on one printer has increased.
An exclusive-use cartridge mounting portion (container mounting portion) for each color is provided in the printer. However, when the ink cartridges having the same exterior size are used for the respective colors, the similar cartridge mounting portions are also arranged, and thus a user may mistake a mounting position. When an ink cartridge is mounted at an erroneous color position, ink around an ink supply port of the cartridge and ink of a different color remaining around an ink supply needle of the printer may be mixed with each other. Accordingly, print quality may be degraded.
Further, when plural kinds of ink cartridges that substantially have the same exterior and contain different kinds of ink (for example, dye or pigment) are manufactured, parts of a dye printer and a pigment printer can be shared. However, since the ink cartridges that substantially have the same shape and contain different kinds of ink are sold, an ink cartridge of an erroneous ink kind may be inserted into the printer. When a pigment ink cartridge is erroneously inserted into the dye printer, dye ink around an ink supply port of the ink cartridge and pigment ink remaining around an ink supply needle of the printer may be mixed with each other. Then, the pigment may be aggregated and clogging may occur in the head.
In addition, when plural kinds of ink cartridges that have substantially the same exterior and contain different filling amounts of ink are manufactured, in a printer that is expected to perform printing in small quantity, a cheap and small-capacity ink cartridge can be provided. Further, in a printer that is expected to perform printing in large quantity, a large-capacity ink cartridge can be provided with a low unit cost per 1 g of ink. However, since the ink cartridges that substantially have the same shape but different capacities are sold, an ink cartridge having an erroneous capacity may be inserted into the printer. If a small-capacity ink cartridge is inserted into a large-capacity printer, even if ink is exhausted, printing may be continuously performed, and thus the head may break down. To the contrary, when a large-capacity ink cartridge is inserted into a small-capacity printer, ink end may be judged in spite of the ink that remains still. Thus, a large quantity of ink may remain.
Accordingly, there has been suggested a technology that selectively provides identification projection portions (or recess portions) at a plurality of positions defined in a partial region of the carriage as an erroneous insertion prevention mechanism, which prevents an ink cartridge from being erroneously inserted into an unconformable different cartridge mounting portion (for example, see Patent Documents 1 to 5).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2003-34040
Patent Document 2: JP-A-2002-234178
Patent Document 3: JP-A-11-170567
Patent Document 4: JP-A-2003-341087
Patent Document 5: JP-A-8-90788
As described above, the number of ink cartridges having similar shapes increases, and thus the erroneous insertion prevention mechanism needs to be structured to identify a larger number of kinds of ink cartridges.
Accordingly, when the shape corresponding to the ink capacity and the ink kinds is formed of one constituent part of the ink cartridge, the number of kinds of the parts is the number (the number of kinds of the ink capacity×the number of kinds of the ink) obtained by multiplying the number of kinds of the ink capacity by the number of kinds of the ink. Accordingly, the number of kinds of parts increases, thereby increasing the manufacture cost of a mold or the management cost of the parts.